This invention is directed to recombinant DNase B derived from the pathogenic bacterium Streptococcus pyogenes, methods for its production, and methods for its use.
Despite advances in the prevention and treatment of bacterial infection, a number of bacterial pathogens remain serious problems in medical practice and continue to cause severe, even fatal disease. One of these pathogens is S. pyogenes. Among the diseases caused by S. pyogenes are streptococcal pharyngitis (“strep throat”), scarlet fever, and their suppurative complications, including cervical adenitis, otitis media, mastoiditis, peritonsillar abscesses, meningitis, pneumonitis, pneumonia, puerperal sepsis, cellulitis of the skin, impetigo, lymphangitis, erysipelas, acute glomerulonephritis, and rheumatic fever.
Such infections often occur in hospitals (nosocomial infection), particularly in patients whose normal immune system functioning is suppressed. The latter category includes patients with AIDS, patients taking immunosuppressive drugs for cancer or to prevent transplant rejection, and patients having poor circulation, e.g., patients with diabetes.
Because these diseases require rapid and effective treatment to eradicate the suppurative lesions and prevent sequelae caused by immunological reactions to persisting suppurative lesions, prompt diagnosis of the presence of S. pyogenes is essential in patients in whom such infections are suspected. Failure to diagnose S. pyogenes promptly can greatly complicate treatment or even make it impossible.
Although detection methods for S. pyogenes are currently available, these methods have defects, particularly in clinical applications.
Among the methods of detection of S. pyogenes is the detection of the presence of antibodies against DNase B, a DNA-degrading enzyme produced by S. pyogenes. This enzyme, which is excreted from S. pyogenes during infection, initiates development of substantial titers of antibody in patients who go on to develop acute rheumatic fever and acute glomerulonephritis.
Although other serum-based diagnostic tests for these rheumatic fever and glomerulonephritis are available, including the detection of antibodies to streptolysin O, and to hyaluronidase, assays for anti-DNase B antibodies offer certain advantages, because DNase B is found among nearly all strains of group A beta-hemolytic streptococci, and because high DNase B titers are found in patients with infections of the skin and pharynx.
Although a number of commercially-available tests exist for the assay of anti-DNase B antibody, these tests have defects. As indicated above, an improved test is greatly needed.
The commercially-available tests fall into three categories: (1) a DNase B inhibition-based assay using the ability of the antibody to inhibit enzymatic activity; (2) a latex agglutination assay for antibody against a variety of S. pyogenes antigens; and (3) a turbidimetric inhibition assay. ELISA assays have also been used in the research laboratory, but, as detailed below, they have not yet proven suitable for routine clinical application.
The DNase B inhibition assay is very slow, and typically requires about 4–8 hours to perform. Thus, in situations in which confirmation of anti-DNase B antibody is required rapidly so the treatment can be started as soon as possible should the presence of S. pyogenes be confirmed, the enzyme inhibition assay is not particularly useful.
The latex agglutination assay is designed to detect antibodies to five S. pyogenes antigens. However, test results indicate poor agreement between the latex agglutination assay and a specific anti-DNase B tests. In one study, G. C. Klein & W. L. Jones, “Comparison of the Streptozyme Test with the Antistreptolysin O, Antideoxyribonuclease B, and Antihyaluronidase Tests,” App. Microbiol. 21:257–259 (1971), 12 out of 80 patients that tested negatively in the latex agglutination assay were, in fact, positive for anti-DNase B antibody. This high level of false negative results means that the test is undesirable for clinical use.
The turbidimetric inhibition assay depends on the inhibition of agglutination of latex particles coated with anti-DNase B antibody by a limiting quantity of a crude preparation of DNase B in the presence of serum containing anti-DNase B antibody, which competes for the antibody on the latex particles. This assay, which is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,055,395, incorporated herein by this reference, is relatively insensitive. Therefore, it is not suitable for use in the early stages of S. pyogenes infection, and it is precisely this period when accurate detection of the anti-DNase B antibody is most important. Additionally, the reagents used in the turbidimetric inhibition assay are difficult to manufacture.
ELISA-based assays for anti-DNase B antibody are reported in M. A. Gerber et al., “Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay of Antibodies in Human Sera to Streptococcal DNase B,” J. Lab. Clin. Med. 95:258–265 (1980). Although these assays have proven effective as research tools, their scale-up for commercial use, particularly in clinical practice, has been impractical. This is because such scale-up would require production and purification of the DNase B enzyme of Streptococcus pyogenes, which is, as detailed above, a serious pathogen. Not only would extremely costly containment methods be required for growth of this pathogenic bacterium in the quantity required to produce sufficient enzyme for commercialization of the ELISA assay, the media required for the growth of S. pyogenes is very complex and expensive. These concerns have seriously hampered development of a commercial version of the ELISA assay for anti-DNase B antibody.
Therefore, there exists a need for an improved, rapid, and specific assay for anti-DNase B antibody. Preferably, such an assay would be usable by a physician in his office and would require minimal equipment. This is because patients with diseases such as strep throat or scarlet fever typically see their family physician prior to hospitalization, and accurate diagnosis of S. pyogenes infection at that point would be preferable to a subsequent diagnosis made only when the patient has been hospitalized.
The development of such an improved assay is dependent on the availability of large quantities of DNase B enzyme itself. Therefore, there is also a need for a method for the production of S. pyogenes DNase B enzyme using a procedure that can be scaled up to produce commercial quantities of the enzyme without requiring complex, unwieldy, and expensive containment measures.